Categories

Meta

Patience…Like Noah

Noah: what an impressive man. He hung in there when all the world around him was corrupt and violent. (Genesis 6: 11) He stuck to his faithful standards when all, I mean all, of his fellow men and women were turning to sin. God saw his righteousness and blessed him incredibly for it; his was the only family who was given the gift of life post-flood.

He wasn’t just faithful, he was a patient man, too.

Did you realize that although it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, the flood went on for five months before the ark settled on Ararat…and it was three more months before mountaintops became visible. That still wasn’t enough for the raven and the dove to find a home. According to Genesis 8: 13-14, it was almost eleven months after the flood began before the water dried up from the earth, and more than a full year after the rain began before Noah, waiting so patiently for God’s instruction and not heaving a sigh of relief and letting everyone and everything out at the first sight of land, finally opened the ark. It was the right time.

Noah waited until the time was right, and didn’t take a step ahead of God. That’s so very hard to do. We may wait a month, a year, or a lifetime to hear God’s instruction. And when we do, we can freely and joyfully run with it.

But until then, try to have patience. It could be worse. You could be stuck in a closed up ark…with all those animals.

Dear heavenly Father, I cannot even count the times I have stepped out ahead of You. In fact, maybe every time, to some degree. I want to wait for your instruction, so that I will not only do life right, at the right time – but also because I want to be right with you by the very act of waiting. I have a long way to go. Help the Godly people in the world today to pause, reflect, and listen. Open our ears to hear.